The 4 B's - Busy, Baseball, Birds and the Bees

The past few weeks have included a little baseball, a little soccer, some swimming and a whole lotta loving on Nina. 

 

I must share about the little bit of the excitement (if that is what you would like to call it), I had a the baseball field that had nothing to do with baseball. As Camden and I are sitting and watching the game, something came up about the hair on his legs. Boy howdy did that open up a can of worms I was not prepared to open!!! The conversation went a little something like this:

Me: Wait until you hit puberty, you will have more hair than that on your legs.

Camden: What exactly is puberty?

Me:  It is when you start maturing and you start developing hormones that cause you to have hair in different places and for boys their voice lowers and other things happen.

Camden: Oh, that is why we have to watch the video in school this year that the girls watched last year.

Me: Yes

Camden: Why did they already watch that and the boys didn't?

Me: Well, girls mature earlier than boys so they discuss that with them earlier. 

Camden: Since the girls are maturing, that means they can have babies now, right????

Me: Ummmm yes. But they don't need to be having babies until they are married.

Camden: How does that happen?

Me: Do we really need to discuss this at the ball field today?

Camden: Yes mom, I have questions that need to be answered!!

Me: Well, a man and woman come together . . . 

Camden: Like they do on TV?

Me: Uh, yes I guess.

Camden: Well how come they don't always have a baby after that happens?

Me: We really need to discuss this now? Can this not wait?

Camden: Mom, I need to know this stuff.

Me: You don't always have a baby because you can take medicine or do things to prevent that from happening. But you need to understand, in the Bible it says that that should not happen until you are married. So we need to obey God and make sure that you do not do things that would make you have a baby until you are married. Do you understand?

Camden: Yes.

Me: OK, are your questions answered now?

Camden: I guess.

This boy of mine!!!

Last Sunday was Father's Day and I must say we were not overly exciting at our house, but hopefully Shane felt the love from his boys!

Baseball Weekend Fun

Boy howdy, were we ever so glad to be back out at the ball fields. We had our first tournament back since all of this COVID business and I can't tell you how nice it was to have that bit of normalcy. We played a lot of games and made it to the championship game, but came up short. For everything that has been going on and not playing a game since February, we were so proud of how they came out and fought hard to get to the championship. It has been great for the kids to be back out on the field, seeing their friends and doing what they love. 

                                     

The COVID way of telling the other 
team "Good Game!"

Showing off the hardware.

I will always be his biggest fan!

Another one of his fans!

I tell you, their coach can be hard on them, and those boys have shed some tears due to his 'toughness', but in the end, Coach Rick always tells the boys how much he loves them and how proud he is of them. 

In the midst of all the games this weekend, Camden was fortunate enough to be able to go swim at his friend, Cole's house since we had a big gap in time from our morning games to our evening games today. Fun, sun, and popsicles made him a happy boy!

The championship game was against a team who Casen's fellow flag football teammate and friend, Raider, plays on. It was so nice to see his parents and hug their necks - and yes, I did hug them despite what the medical professionals say to do. Their flag football coach and his son, Easton (also their teammate) came out and watched their championship game since the boys were playing against each other. I love the community we have amongst our sports families.

Raider, Easton and Casen

Raider and Casen    

Raider, Coach Bradley and Casen

Nina's First Haircut

Our Nina girl is getting so big. She has done really well with her potty training. My only complaint is that girl's alarm clock is set a bit too early. She likes to get up generally between 6:00-7:00am to go to the restroom and has been known to get up as early as 5:30am. Of course with her puppy energy, she is not always ready to go back to sleep! Good thing her momma is working ten hour shifts from home and is usually up around 6:30am anyways.

Today we took her to get a haircut and she looks so precious, although I am going to miss her looking like a little stuffed animal. The groomer said she was amazing and they wanted to keep her. Sweet girl!

Before

After

Casen's 8th Birthday

Today we celebrated Casen's 8th birthday. First up, was lunch at IHOP - Casen's choice. Of course he had a funny face pancake, as did Camden. Yummy!!! 

When we asked Casen wanted to do for his birthday, he really didn't have any ideas. With COVID, our choices are limited on what we can do. Shane and I decided we could go kayaking. We didn't tell the boys what we were going to do, instead just told them to put on their bathing suits and we headed to the Woodlands. 

We had a great time kayaking, getting a little wet and just enjoying nature. The boys really enjoyed it and Casen is ready to get his own kayak. :)

This evening, Melissa and her family came over and enjoyed watching Casen open his presents and eating cake. Casen requested I make him an ice cream cake with chocolate ice cream, Reeses peanut butter cups and lined with Kit Kats. It was chocolaty, rich and good! 

End of School Year Festivities

Since things are opening up, I don't really feel like we are 'quarantined' so much anymore, although we are still supposed to be social distancing as well as wearing masks when in public places if you are 10 years of age or older. Businesses can now have 50% capacity instead of 25%. Last Thursday we had an 8th grade send off for the students at my school. The staff all stood out on in the parking lot, while the parents drove their students by in their cars waving. Perhaps, I didn't social distance appropriately when I saw some of my favorite students. I am going to miss them!!!!

Afterwards, a few coworkers and I went to a local restaurant to celebrate my birthday! So fun!

I started another labor intensive project last week that took until this week to finish. Honestly, I was not planning on it taking me days to complete, but it did. Some of the expansion joints in our driveway and side walk have rotted and a few have come out. Some stuck up a little and I was afraid someone was going to hurt themselves by tripping on it. So, I bought a product called Trim A Slab that is a rubber material to replace the wooden expansion joints. Placing the Trim A Slab was not hard, it was the removal of the old expansion joints. Very few pieces came out whole, so there was a lot of chipping away of wood in the heat. But, I am super pleased with the finished product!

This week, the pool opened up on Memorial Day, so I took the boys to swim. The water was rather chilly due to the recent rains, but that didn't stop the boys!

We have been doing a lot more bike riding! Last week Camden and I went and rode bikes while Shane and Casen were at baseball practice. We were riding on a trail that we have ridden on several time before that has a few mud holes. There are a few mud holes that have a very narrow place to ride beside, which has never really been a problem, until today. Somehow, I fell smooth into a mud hole and was drenched in stinky mud! Good times and lots of laughs!

There is a great climbing tree in one of the neighborhoods we go through to get to the trails and the boys love to climb it! Camden is getting braver and braver trying to go higher and higher. 

Even though the boys finished their school work last Friday, their 'official' last day of school was today. We of course had to take our obligatory last day of school pictures to compare to the first day of school. My, how Casen changed over the year!!! 

It was allergy shot day for Casen today, so he and I dawned our face masks and he got his shot!

This afternoon, the teachers from the boys school did a End of Year Celebration Parade and drove through the neighborhoods where their students go to school. Camden and I picked up his best friend Cole, went to Dairy Queen and got blizzards for everyone and then met Casen and Shane to watch the parade. The boys enjoyed getting to see some of their former teachers.

And of course, our sweet Nina. She is doing good with her potty training and enjoys being held like a baby. She LOVES to drink water, be it out of her dish, off the dew covered grass, or out of the down spouts after a rain. She has been sleeping through the night for weeks now, but still like to get up sometime between 6:30 am and 7:00am. Now, if we could just move her wake up time a little later. . . She has her appointment for her final set of shots next week and we are looking forward to that so we can start taking her for walks.